The Mauna Kea Silversword grows at the dry upper elevations of Mauna Kea. The silvery color is due to the protective hairs on its leaves, which are pale green under the hairs and an icy blue-green when backlit. The wild population was decimated by tens of thousands of sheep and goats that once roamed Mauna Kea, and was reduced to a few individuals living on the walls of two steep ravines. Limited genetic diversity from this small remnant population may be a problem for efforts to repopulate Muana Kea with silverswords, but at least the extermination of most of the feral ungulates from Mauna Kea has allowed nursery-raised silverswords to be planted on the open mountainsides again.